Well I have only played with a couple "REAL" analog's :tb 303,Moog Rouge( not sure if I spelled that right , lol) , Juno's , etc. But the sounds that you said were Ion sounded dull as hell , like the cutoff needs to be higher or something. My friend has a Micron and left it with me a few day's to play with , and I found it pretty boreing . He rave's about it thou. I am much more impressed with my Virus Classic desktop (I know it costs more ......but , shit , it's worth it)!!!!!!

Never owned an Ion - alot of people in the Harmony Central KSS forum rave about it - I had a brief play with one once in a shop - I have to agree - at first pass it seems quite dead and its presets are rather dull.

Its one of those synths that seems to take a while to get into and start to exploit - Ive heard some good sounds done with it. Certainly it seems to have alot of potential, especially considering its current price.

I cant say I am even remotely tempted by one though given what I allready have :)

I don't mind the ION at all actually. It's not an all in one box though - kinda similar to the Nords in that respect.

The filter combos are pretty cool, plus it can get some really quirky sounds.

The thing that put me off of them when they first came out was the hardware glitches and bugs. But even though now they seem to be all fixed I still wouldn't buy another standard VA.

At any rate, for the money I would spend on an ION I could get a used 101 and MS10. I think I'd know which I'd choose. :D